GREEN HORNET

Pros

Undoubtedly the pros of this movie are the special-effects for want of a better word. The ordinary car that turns over into the sedan with machine-guns on the hood. The scene whereby they smash the glass offices in an almost Keystone display of mayhem mut be seen to be believed

Cons

They play it for laughs sometimes when it would have been better if they played it straight. That's being mean; I feel churlish saying this.

Full Review

Britt's nasty dad industrialist James dies of a wasp sting & Britt fires all the staff bar Kato. Britt and Kato get intoxicated together and, upon agreeing that they both disliked James, visit the graveyard to cut the head off James' memorial statue by way of catharsis . After they succeed, they see a couple being mugged, and help them. Britt and Kato are themselves mistaken by cops for bad-guys and chased through the streets, but Kato evades them and he and Britt return to the mansion. Britt convinces Kato they should become crime-fighters who pose as criminals in order to infiltrate real criminals, and also to prevent enemies from using innocents against them. Kato agrees, and develops a car outfitted with several gadgets and weapons, which they call the Black Beauty. This has no similarity with the childrens classic of the same name that was a horse with a white marking on it nose. When the TV company made a series of this here I was disappointed to learn that it wasn't the same horse but loads all with white paint put on, but that is another story.

This movie is the most incredible piece of cinema since:-well whatever you consider the best picture has been of the last 50 years or so. The hubris lies in the relationship between Kato & the Hornet who like a combination of Superman & Batman is head of a newspaper but an entrepreneur as well. It's as if The Hornet was Perry White turned in to Bruce Wayne. Much is made of the relationship between the two with Kato driving the Hornet almost to madness by some unseen hold he has over his personality. Personally speaking I feel he's being a bit hard on his boss, but don't forget the original was played by Bruce Lee who was a pretty tough nut too. He died after giving away a martial-art secret at a very young age. Some say he was even given a 'nerve-pinch' like Mr. Spock from Star-Trek which sent his nerves into jelly, or ( more likely) took a proprietary medicine which didn't agree with him. Anyway this movie goes along at a suitably cracking pace with some nasty villains &good soundtrack.....

In Closing

Go see this movie if you like fast action & little in the way of depth; that in't meant as a criticism but an observation-& they do attempt to explore the dynamic of this pair at the beginning of the movie . This isn't Solaris or any other philosophical effort you care to mention that goes into intellectual depths. It would be nice if they made a sequel so that these two characters could be explored further. There is a tension between them which is unequaled...........